The Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly decided last night to look into implementing mid-semester evaluations to compensate for weaknesses in the Student Rating of Teacher Effectiveness survey.

Assembly members, prefacing a Teacher Evaluation Subcommittee report to be presented during today's Faculty Senate meeting, said the current evaluation method hinders accurate comparison and does not help the teacher improve in ways identified by the students.

The SRTE survey is distributed in classes at the end of each semester. Students respond to questions about the teachers' effectiveness with "excellent," "very good," "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory" ratings.

"The survey is used for evaluation for promotion, tenure and raises -- not for improvement of teaching," said Jerry Covert, associate dean for academic programs.

"Each department can pick its questions; responses to different questions cannot be compared," said Wayne Hudders, Earth and Mineral Sciences student faculty senator.

Terrence Wagner, Arts and Architecture student faculty senator, said the guidelines for the survey's use are developed by the faculty in individual departments or colleges.

"And there is no policy about the written part," he added.

Assembly President Maria Witmer asked the Committee Regarding Excellence in Education at Penn State to develop a plan to implement midsemester evaluations to provide feedback for teaching improvement.

In other business, East Halls Undergraduate Student Government Senator Chris Gazze proposed the USG Senate and Academic Assembly form a joint committee to look into problems experienced by Jewish students. Gazze said some students had approached him about problems rescheduling exams on religious holidays and attending special meals for Passover.